JOHN OSBORNE AND HIS DAUGHTER NOLAN, 1970s

two matte silver gelatin prints of John Osborne and his daughter Nolan at a kitchen table; both 17 x 18cm; 26 x 32.5 (framed)
(2)

Literature
John Heilpern, John Osborne, A Patriot for Us, London, 2007, pl. 31, the photograph cropped illustrated

Nolan was born on 24th February 1965, the daughter of Osborne and Penelope Gilliatt, and his only child. According to Osborne who was working on a script for Tony Richardson's film The Charge of the Light Brigade, she was 'rather eccentrically christened Nolan after the wild captain who delivered the fatal order to Lords Lucan and Cardigan at the head of the Light Brigade.' although Gilliatt later claimed she was named after a character in an essay by James Joyce, a claim Osborne disputed (Heilpern, p. 301).

After Gilliatt and Osborne separated following his affair with Jill Bennett, Nolan lived in New York with her mother, but returned to live with Osborne in Kent when in her early 'teens, and he had just married his fifth wife Helen Dawson. All went well for a while, but as Nolan grew into adolescence Osborne's relationship with her deteriorated, culminating in him sending her one of the most excoriating letters ever penned by a father to his teenage daughter, a four page diatribe announcing that he was cutting off her allowance, would not be paying her school fees and that she was no longer welcome in his house. The consequence was that the sixteen year old Nolan moved out to live with a friend and never spoke or communicated with her father ever again, and Osborne deleted her from his entry in Who's Who.